Home > Wild Hunger (Heirs of Chicagoland #1)(14)

Wild Hunger (Heirs of Chicagoland #1)(14)
Author: Chloe Neill

The neighborhood on the west side where Slavs, Poles, and then Ukrainians had settled had a lot of town houses, plenty of dives, and several gorgeous churches. It was also home to Little Red, the Pack’s Chicago headquarters.

When the Auto stopped, I found nothing left of the bar I’d seen four years ago: the scrubby little brick building that had squatted on the corner, a plate glass window in front so the Pack could keep an eye on the street. It had been replaced by a three-story building marked by horizontal stripes of steel and tinted glass. It hadn’t occurred to me to ask Lulu if the Pack had moved, relocated to some other part of the city. The change was disorienting, and I turned a circle on the sidewalk to get my bearings . . . and caught the scent of roasting meat in the air.

Curious, I looked back at the new building, caught the tidy red inscription in the front door, also metal. “NAC Industries.”

“I guess they upgraded,” I said, and walked to the door and pulled it open.

The smell was even stronger here. Sweet and sharp and smoky, with a spicy kick. And behind it, the faint smell of fur and animal, and the vibration of powerful magic.

“Close door! You are letting out air.”

The voice was rough, but one hundred percent recognizable. She rolled up to me in a red motorized scooter. Her hair was still dyed blond, her body a sturdy box on stick legs, her face lined with a few more wrinkles. But her eyes were still clear and suspicious, and her magic put a spice in the air that nearly overpowered the scent of food.

Her gaze narrowed. “You look familiar. I remember a little girl who came in here with her parents. Brat,” she added with a sly smile. “And then a young woman. And then, poof, gone.”

“Hello, Berna. It’s been a long time.”

Berna was one of the matriarchs of the NAC Pack, and Connor’s great-aunt. Her particular corner of the Pack was from the Ukraine.

She clucked her tongue. “For years, you have not come by.”

“I was out of the country.”

“You have not seen our new building.”

“I didn’t even recognize it. It’s so”—I looked up at the glass and steel atrium, and the mobile of metal parts that swung above our heads—“different.”

“Modern,” she said, lip curled like the word itself tasted sour. “Is not my style. But humans, they like.” Her eyes narrowed, and her smile went sly as a fox’s. “And they spend money.”

“So I see. Smells like the barbecue business is doing well.”

“Not just barbecue!” Before I could ask what she meant, she zipped her scooter around and headed down a hallway.

Deciding I’d better follow or be left behind, I hurried to catch up.

The floor here was shiny concrete, and the smell of fresh paint still tinted the air. But it wasn’t strong enough to beat back the scent of food. And I hoped some of it was destined for the Cadogan House party.

“The kitchen,” she said, pointing to a door. “Restaurant over there, bar over there.”

“Over there” was behind what I thought was the same tufted red leather door that had hung at the old bar.

“Is still the Pack’s place. For now,” she added, her tone and narrowed eyes adding an ominous edge.

“For now?”

“Pack has been in Chicago for a long time. We are not as strong when we do not recharge. Some of us will return, be part of the woods and the air and the water. Join with the earth. And we will be stronger again.”

“Only some of you?”

“We have business here,” she said. “Industry. Many have started families, live as humans. But the Pack must be strong. So there must be a reconnection. A rekindling. That magic will be shared among us, and we will be whole again.”

“Then I hope the Pack finds what it needs,” I said with a smile. “I’m here to see Lulu,” I added, before I ended up on another leg of the tour.

“She’s in back, working.” Her gaze narrowed again. “You will interrupt her?”

“No. I will just say hello.”

There was an aching silence while Berna probably evaluated whether I was going to cost the Pack time or money. Then she nodded toward the far door. “Through there. She is working on the wall.”

I left before she could change her mind.

* * *

• • •

I always forgot how small she was.

Lulu Bell was just over five feet tall, with a slender build and a thick bob of dark hair that scooped at an angle around her face, and that she was forever flipping out of the way.

She wore a sleeveless top in dark gray over calf-length leggings, and flats with toes so pointy they could probably be used as weapons.

She stood in front of an enormous wall—twenty feet long and at least fifteen feet high. Half the wall was filled in—streaks of wild color dancing around curvy female shapes. The other half was still what I thought was the base coat of paint, where light pencil marks created shapes that hadn’t yet been filled in with color.

With a yellow pencil, she drew another waving line across the unpainted portion of the wall. “Thanks, but I don’t need any more coffee, Berna,” she said without looking back.

“Good,” I said. “Because I didn’t bring any.”

Lulu glanced back, hair falling over her right eye. Her skin was pale, her eyes pale green in a heart-shaped face. Her lips were a perfect cupid’s bow, and there was stubbornness in the set of her chin.

For a second she just stared at me, as if trying to reconcile the fact that I wasn’t Berna. And then her scream cut through the air like a knife. She dropped the pencil, ran toward me, and jumped into my arms.

“Lis! You’re here!” she said, wrapping her legs around my waist like a toddler.

I put my arms beneath her and tried to keep both of us upright. “You might be tiny,” I grunted, “but you’re way too heavy for this.”

Even this close, I couldn’t detect a hint of the magic I knew she carried as the daughter of two powerful sorcerers. Her parents had embraced their magic; Lulu was a teetotaler. I wondered if the apparent absence of it meant she’d lost her skill completely—or she’d just gotten better at hiding it.

“You’re a vampire. You can handle it.” She pressed a kiss to my cheek, then unfolded her legs and hit the ground again. “Let me look at you.”

Before I could argue, she took a step back, gave me an up-and-down appraisal. “Your hair’s long.”

She’d come to Paris to see me a couple of years ago, but our communications had been mostly electronic since then.

“Yeah. It’s better that way.”

“So much. You trying for the Sabrina thing?” she asked with a grin. “The one with Audrey Hepburn? Full of newfound sexiness and charm?”

I gave her an arched eyebrow worthy of my father. “You’re saying I wasn’t sexy or charming before?”

“You didn’t believe you were sexy, and you can’t convince anyone else of something you don’t believe.”

“You’re really good at backhanded compliments.”

She patted my cheek. “Honesty is an undervalued commodity in this day and age, Lis. If people were a little more honest, the world would turn a hell of a lot smoother.”

I didn’t think this was the time to bring up her hidden magic, so I kept my mouth shut.

“Anyway, it looks like Paris did you some good. And I’m glad to see you.”

“I’m glad to see you, too.”

Then she held out a hand.

I looked down at it, then up at her. “What?”

“Where’s my souvenir?”

Damn it. I should have gone with the airport macarons. “Still in Paris?”

She made a noise of exaggerated frustration. “You owe me a drink for that.” She pointed at me with a paint-smeared finger. “And colcannon.”

Lulu had discovered colcannon at Temple Bar, the official Cadogan House watering hole. It also served Irish pub food, including the mashed potato–cabbage combination I didn’t understand.

My lip curled involuntarily. “Colcannon is disgusting, and I’m not buying it. But I’ll buy you a Guinness.”

“Deal.”

“This looks amazing,” I said, hoping to change the subject from cabbage, and gestured at the mural.

She walked closer, flicked at a smudge. “It’s not bad. Still a lot of work to go, but it’s not bad. You want to help?”

   
Most Popular
» Magical Midlife Meeting (Leveling Up #5)
» Magical Midlife Love (Leveling Up #4)
» The ​Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and Ash
» Lover Unveiled (Black Dagger Brotherhood #1
» A Warm Heart in Winter (Black Dagger Brothe
» Meant to Be Immortal (Argeneau #32)
» Shadowed Steel (Heirs of Chicagoland #3)
» Wicked Hour (Heirs of Chicagoland #2)
» Wild Hunger (Heirs of Chicagoland #1)
» The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club
» Crazy Stupid Bromance (Bromance Book Club #
» Undercover Bromance (Bromance Book Club #2)
vampires.readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024